One San Gabriel Valley city which I really haven't mentioned much in writing is Walnut. If you've read about my description of the decades long eastward march of Chinese residents and Chinese food starting from Monterey Park in the 1960s, I jump from Rowland Heights to Diamond Bar, without particular mention of Walnut. That's because Walnut, a relatively small city, is immediately adjacent to Rowland Heights and indeed its history is related to the Rowland family. As such, I've always treated it as an extension of Rowland Heights. But in many ways, Walnut is distinct from Rowland Heights, a few miles removed from the main thoroughfares of Rowland Heights and Industry, and I would suspect that its restaurants draw more locally than those in Rowland Heights or even Diamond Bar. And I know that traveling to Walnut is an unusual occurrence for me. In fact I hadn't been to Walnut since before COVID when I was invited to lunch at Sunny Dumpling House in Walnut. I was well acquainted with their locations in Rowland Heights and Lake Forest, and was intrigued by their first sit down location with a wider menu.
The strip mall exterior of Sunny Dumpling belied a nicely decorated restaurant.
But the food was the attraction. Starting out with baskets of regular pork and pork with shrimp xiaolongbao, all I could say was wow.
Best flavor ever in an XLB, particularly the rich broth. Skin was on the thick side while I prefer it thinner, but certainly no complaints.
The beef rolls were also best in class with an extra crisp to them.
And then something that we had never seen before, a dish described on the menu as crispy crunchy beef with tofu, containing small toasty soybeans. Later discovered it was a Sichuan dish called zha zha beef. A great new dish for me!
As I was leaving the shopping center, I noticed a banner on a restaurant which contained the word "shocking" which you never hear when talking about restaurants.
Well, I wouldn't call $11.99 per pound for hotpot shocking, but that was a good enough deal. Of course I was full from my meal at Sunny Dumpling, but I made a note to return to try this hotpot as soon as possible. When I did, I saw their selection, and they had all of my favorite items, so I loaded up with over 2 pounds worth!
It took several minutes for them to cook my hotpot selection, but in the end it was worth it.
As good as any hotpot broth I've eaten. And with all my favorite ingredients. What more could I ask for? Well, it'd be nice if it were 25 miles closer to me.
But wait, there's more! Most of the Walnut Chinese restaurants that I had eaten at pre-COVID had turned over. So I needed to check out some more of them. At Picnic Time Cafe, I encountered a most interesting combination of breaded chicken cutlet and Shanghai fried noodles. I'm presuming this is a Taiwanese restaurant and the chicken was the best I've tasted.
Meanwhile in the same shopping center at Fu Restaurant, the absolute best fish dumplings ever, with an unbeatable combination of wrapper and filling.
And yet another restaurant in the same center on Amar Road, Hong Kong Cafe, a wonderfully crisp curry beef tarts.
And around the corner, a great fresh fruit boba parlor, Goomo Tea House. This is their peach smoothie. And this shopping center might be the boba capital of the San Gabriel Valley as there are three different boba spots in the span of 10 storefronts!
And worth noting from prior visits, the unique Liu and Sun Enterprises is still in business with a rotating daily menu for dishes costing $10.50 each.
Since the offerings rotate daily, the menu looks like this. Possibly the best bargain in the San Gabriel Valley.
So does Walnut have the best Chinese food in the San Gabriel Valley (putting aside the fact that going back a few decades I remember Walnut as being described in the Walnut Valley, though now it is counted today as an SGV community)? Probably not, because there aren't enough Chinese restaurants in town to make a broad statement. But on an average per restaurant rating, quite possibly.
